The European Rights Court on Tuesday condemned Bulgaria over its refusal to recognise the marital status of a lesbian couple.
Darina Koilova and Lilly Babulkova, who married in 2016 in the United Kingdom, alleged that Bulgarian legislation - that does not recognise same-sex marriages - barred them from enjoying the same legal protection as other married couples.
The Strasbourg-based ECHR ruled in their favour, condemning Bulgaria for violating the right to respect their private and family life as guaranteed under the European Convention on Human Rights.
Bulgaria "had... failed to satisfy its positive obligation to ensure that the applicants had available to them a specific legal framework providing for the recognition and protection of their union as a same-sex couple," the ruling said.
The court turned down the women's claim, filed in 2020, for pecuniary damage but obliged the Bulgarian state to pay them 3,000 euros to cover their legal costs.
Both sides can appeal the ruling - the court's first one against Bulgaria on this topic, according to Sofia University law lecturer Boriana Musseva.
"This is a step towards justice for us and for our community in Bulgaria," Koilova and Babulkova said in a statement, adding that "more efforts" lay ahead in securing same-sex couples' rights.
After living seven years in the UK, Koilova and Babulkova, both Bulgarian nationals in their 30s, moved back to Sofia, where authorities have refused to put "married" as civil status in the documents of one of them.
"It was a matter of time for Bulgaria... to be condemned for the lack of legal framework for recognition of LGBTI families," the couple's lawyer Denitsa Lyubenova told AFP after the court ruling.
"We are awaiting actions from the Bulgaria government for legislative changes," she added.
A justice ministry spokesman did not immediately comment when contacted by AFP.
Public opinion in Bulgaria is predominantly hostile to gay people.
Bulgaria does not allow same-sex marriage and does not recognise same-sex marriages conducted abroad.
The ECHR oversees compliance with the European Convention on Human Rights in the 46 member states of the Council of Europe.